Our tour started at 8, which also happens to be the time our ship actually docked. Mia had told the company this, but they failed to communicate to the tour guides. Fortunately, they waited 20 minutes for us and we made it before they gave up.
After a pleasant hour long drive from the city to the forest, we arrived, geared up and set out.
The excursion description had said that we would encounter water, but what they failed to mention was that the entire hike up was actually through a stream bed. Mia dunked at the beginning of the trailhead and spent the rest of the hike wet. It was awesome.
Myra and Terra soon joined in the fun and Myra started collecting her traditional TKD waterfall pics.
In addition to lots of nice cool water, we also had a little bit of rock climbing to do:
After about an hour of hiking, we reached the top and then took 5 ziplines back down to the bottom.
This was Terra's first time zip-lining and she really enjoyed it. Mia and Myra agreed this was the second best zip line they had gone on (Costa Rica still wins). The zip lines were all slightly different and the guides's joking added an extra element of fun, even if their jokes primarily centered around the instability of the lines :)
After this fun was over, we dried off a bit, ate a home-cooked lunch at a house in the neighborhood below the trail. The cook was the mother of one of the employees of the company (but not our guides). Food was tasty and it was fun to try a local meal. The highlight was the flan at the end. It was made with some sort of sweet potato and was different from anything we had tried before.
After lunch, it was another hour long drive back into the city. The guides dropped off the other couple in our tour at their hotel, then after talking to us a bit, they took us to one of the forts San Juan is famous for and told us their favorite part (a dungeon with graffiti from like the 1500s). It was awesome, they were really helpful and friendly and never once pressured us to buy anything or leave a tip.
After all that, we still had time to wander around San Juan Old Town. We got a smoothie in order to not feel too guilty picking up a free map (and because it tasted good and it was hot). Then we wandered around collecting free stuff and sightseeing.
We found one of the coolest stores ever, one that did butterfly art:
Then we got some of the funnest souvenirs we've gotten:
Keys with our names cut into them. After the last key was finished, we rushed back to the ship with a little bit of time to spare!
The final verdict: everyone loved San Juan. Mia thought it was even better than sailing, while Terra disagreed, and Myra thought they were about equal. We also talked about going back one day, because it seems like a great place to just relax in.
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